The Samsung Gear S3 and Samsung Gear Sport may be the Korean company's most recent efforts, but those who aren't a fan of big or sporty smartwatches should still consider the Samsung Gear S2. For our money, it's still one of the best smartwatches in the game, especially now that it's compatible with iPhones, as well as Android smartphones.

At launch, there were more than 1,000 apps, and while it still doesn't quite match what the Apple Watch or Android Wear watches have to offer, things are steadily improving on the Tizen platform.

All Gear S2 apps are downloaded via the Samsung Gear app, once it has been paired to the smartwatch. Let us know what apps and games you're using and any recommendations you've found below in the comments.

Uber

Uber was late to the Gear S2 after being listed as a launch app, but now you're able to access rides from the wrist. We had to download a companion app to our Samsung phone, as well as the Gear S2 app (and our own Android Uber app), but once you're set up and logged in, it's a slick, nicely designed app.

There's a 'set pickup' screen with a miniature map to move around or pinpoint your current location, then you get a list of Uber options (UberX, Pool etc) to scroll through with the rotating bezel to order your car.

Travel Phrasebook

Making those tricky conversations abroad a little easier, this Gear S2 app plucks out a selection of handy phrases covering all the important scenarios like talking to a taxi driver, going for dinner and working out your money. Best of all, it works offline, so you don't need to be connected to communicate a bit better with the locals.

Calorie Burner S2

Perfect if you want to know how much it's going to take to burn off that burger you had at lunch, this fitness app for your Samsung watch stores a collection of foods across 14 different families to let you know exactly how many calories you've consumed. Then you can start your workout and proceed to sweat it out of your system.

Here Navigator

Get simple, easy to read, turn-by-turn directions for walking or driving with HERE Maps' Navigator app. Samsung has partnered with the mapping service but we had to download the app onto our device. It's free, accurate too and won't have you walking in circles like Apple Maps on the Watch.

Camera Gear

If you want to shoot pictures or record video on your phone via your Gear S2, this is the app to do it. Turning that crisp, vibrant circular display into a viewer, it works with both front and rear facing cameras, supports a flash mode and has a self timer mode to give you time to get into the shot.

Vroom Rider

There's not a lot of Gear S2 games out there, but this Outrun-esque arcade racer is among the best of the bunch. You can steer the car using the Gear S2's rotating bezel and while longer sessions might sap the life out of the battery, it's a whole lot of fun.

Twitter Trends

With this social networking app, you can get Twitter feeds sent directly to your watch face, below the date and time, so you'll know exactly when your clever status update got a retweet. This could be an example of connectivity overload, but get the right feed and it will keep you up to date on Twitter without becoming too distracting.

Xenozu YouTube Player

There's no official YouTube app for the Gear S2 on your wrist, but those looking to view videos can do so through Xenozu's workaround.

You'll be given a neat screen to navigate around with the rotating bezel, allowing you to quickly jump into popular videos, different categories or simply use the search tool.

Fruit Ninja

Again, not the official version, but this alternative can provide a surprising amount of fun. It can get a bit laggy now and then, but nothing that will spoil the activity of endlessly carving airborne watermelons. Plus it's free - a fruity bonus.

Spotify

After Gear users were forced to hunt around for Spotify workarounds for some time, the official app is now available for the S2 - providing you're not using it from an iPhone.

The app will let you control playback on your wrist, browse through charts, search artists and scroll through your playlists. Sadly, though, there's no offline mode right now, so those looking to take it out on runs will need the 3G Gear S2 model, or hope your gym has Wi-Fi.

Prana

The breathing exercise app is all about helping you relax, reduce that anxiety and just generally feel a lot less stressed. It works by displaying animations that will guide you through the simple sessions letting you use the rotating bezel or the touch screen to set up the session duration.

Mr. Time Maker

This is a nice - and popular - watch face creator which lets you customise or 'stylise' existing faces with adding dial colours and widgets like dates. Plus, you can also make your own and some enterprising Samsung smartwatch owners have copied their favourite traditional watch designs. Mr. Time recommends setting these to private to avoid copyright problems.

Chat Hub

This handy Samsung app brings all your messages into one screen - texts, WhatsApps, Facebook Messenger etc. Again, it involves two downloads but there's no more logging in after that. Chat Hub includes both preset replies like "What's up?" and an onscreen keyboard if you really want to type out your response.

News Briefing

Flipboard for Gear S2 (essentially) is here and it's a nice image-based stream of curated articles to scroll through with the S2's rotating bezel. One minor point - the default font is too big to read whole headlines.

Golf Navi Global

If you're looking for a golf partner from the wrist and don't fancy investing in a dedicated device, Golf Navi Global provides you with around 60,000 courses on your Gear S2.

Not only does it automatically track the hole you're on and your score, but distance to the pin is also available.

Bubble Bash 3

The Gear S2 makes full use of the rotating bezel for its games. Bubble Bash 3 is one that we've enjoyed lately, and just like other bubble bursting games, you must shoot, stack and burst like-colored orbs to get points.

eBay

Through the official Gear S2 eBay app, you can view your buying and selling activity, increase bids (by turning the bezel) and outbid someone on the watch itself. You can't search items or place a new bid yet, but perhaps that's for the best, impulse buy wise.

Agile Keyboard

We're not really sure what to make of this QWERTY keyboard app for the Gear S2, but thought it best to mntion. Some people love this sort of thing and as boldly stylish as the Gear S2 can be, this is still a geek's watch at heart. One reasons you might actually download this $0.99 app is the access to hundreds of emojis in a few taps. Nice.

Snake Classic S2

Two types of games are emerging on smartwatches - imaginative text based adventures and well, simple mobile games. And it doesn't get more basic than Snake, the Gear S2 version is actually the top free app on the Gear store. No further explanation needed.

Photo Watch Pro

The selection of watch faces for the Gear S2 is increasing - it has Snoopy now, take that Mickey Mouse Apple Watch. But most users want to personalise the look of their watch even more

If Mr. Time Maker style customisation isn't your bag, download Photo Watch to use your own still/animated images as background dials. Switch out photos by double tapping the watch app itself (which comes from Android Wear), not the smartphone app.

Voxer

Want to play spy movie? Voxer aims to come close. If you're rocking the Gear S2 3G, you can send audio messages from your smartwatch to someone else, like you would on a walkie-talkie, to instantly talk with your friend. Just tap on a contact and start speaking nto your watch. Yep.

It appears as a message on your mate's watch and they can then listen to it on the watch itself via the S2 3G's speaker or on a connected Bluetooth headset.

Lifesum

This is a food and water tracker that's already available on the Apple Watch and Android Wear. Samsung's own S Health screens allow you to manually enter that you've drank a bottle of water or cup of coffee with one tap. But if you want to go one step further, Lifesum is worth a look with recipes, diaries and 'lose weight'/'gain weight' goals.

Line

You know those cutesy characters that you can use as stickers in the Line messaging app? Well, now you can choose one to be your watch face on Gear S2 with this Line app - hold tight for the full blown messaging app on Tizen.

Yelp for Gear

What time is it? It's breakfast time. Meet me at a quarter to coffee break. I get off work at happy hour. That's how you will tell time with the Yelp app for Gear S2. While providing consumer-submitted reviews of various businesses inside the app, your watch fac looks like a spinning wheel of things-to-do which makes good use of the watch's circular screen and rotating bezel.

And if you own smart home devices or a connected car...

SmartThings

With the SmartThings app for Gear S2, you will be able to use your smartwatch to activate preset lihting so your house is ready for your return, as well as manage a host of smart home automations. It hasn't arrived on Samsung's store yet, but it will work with Samsung's SmartThings kit.

Kevo by UniKey

Keys are so 20th century. Nowadays, all you need is a smartphone to get through your front door. Even more convenient, with apps like Kevo, you can unlock your front door with your wrist worn device. You can also send digital codes to friends and family when you aren't home so they can let themselves in and won't accidentally lose your ouse key.

The app works with the $220 Kwikset Kevo smart lock by Unikey so, you know, don't download if you have a dumb door.

Volkswagen

If you've got one of Volkswagen's new connected cars and a Gear S2, you'll be able to tell, right on our watch face, whether you've left the door unlocked. You can also start the air conditioner and pause charging on electric cars. Even better? Your smartwatch's emissions are guaranteed to be legal.

What do you think?

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46 comments

SoLo·14-Oct-2015 6:52 am

Why isnt anyone talking about the 3g version? What carriers will carry it? What will the price be? Where can someone buy the replacement bands they showed off when they announced the watch? ¬†I dont get why this has to be a mystery with Samsung. ¬†Announce like apple does and you will sell more.¬†

Because this Website's Writers all Sainted Steve Jobs iCrAppleholics..... bent on dissing on anything that doesn't have the Cult of the Rotten Bitten Apple Logo on it!!!

Of it needs to be engraved with Tim Crook's Official Seal of the iDevil Profit Mongers for this writer to think it worthy of their dearly beloved Saint Steve Jobs's iGraveyard likeness, in preparation for iHalloween! .....where she will play the part of Lisa the failed prelude to the Mac and slayer of the all mighty IBM, in a remake of Apple's infamous Commercial that only ran once! ......as she'll deliver the famous fearless leader's eulogy in celebration of All Hallows Eve.... I mean Lisa.... the long gone 1st copy of Xerox PARC's GUI and Mouse FAIL!!!¬†

Jobs stole Xerox OS and GUI for his Apple, but then told lies to the world that Gates stole it. The fact was that Gates hired former PARC engineers when Jobs stole their future. He's a mischievous evil prick, not a genius, just a thief without conscience.

Everyone stole from Xerox. Cisco stole the routing setup, Apple also got the mouse from Xerox as well... Lots of other ideas came from Xerox... too bad they just put them all in the trash or Xerox would be one of the top companies today.

I got 3G one from AT&T (running 4G on it). I own bluetooth one also. 3G Gear S2 is slightly bigger and heavier than bluetooth Gear S2, but it sure is nice to be connected to text and phone calls when I'm away from my phone and be able to talk on the watch. I was talking to my husband in a middle of noisy downtown, he was talking thru his Toyota truck speaker phone via bluetooth. Voice quality was just fine and I was pleased. I just wish Samsung comes out with more apps to use on the watch like IFTTT, so we can customize it and make it more useful. That's the one thing I admoire¬†Moto 360 2nd gen more.

So you might not be aware of the line app, but it's very popular in a few Asian countries. Is the messaging function integrated in the watch or is it just the character faces? (This is probably the most important function to me)

That is a real shame not to have a speaker on all the S2 models and I'm sure I will miss being able to answer calls on my S2 classic but not a show stopper.¬† I would have gone for the S2 3G if it were available in the UK but as e-sim is not a recognised standard in popular use in the UK, looks like it will be a long time if ever we get the 3G model in the UK.

I just got a Gear S2. Where is the best place to find apps for the Gear S2? Is is through Samsung? Is it through the Google Play store? I really want it to connect to, and read, my Google Keep notes. Thank you.

There is no Spotify app but there is a media player controller app. So, if you are playing Spotify on your phone the watch taps into the media controls allowing you to skip track, restart¬†track, pause, and adjust volume.¬†Album cover and song names show up too.

You can only skip around within a playlist and can't actually scroll or search songs. It is still really handy though.

¬†What is also pretty neat is that spotify now syncs between multiple devices, so as long as it is open on your phone you can control whatever device is actually playing the audio. For example: spotify is running¬†on the¬†phone, audio is however being played on desktop computer through spotify, the watch commands control the phone which is then fed to the computer.

To setup this feature, on the watch¬†go to the media controller app, it by default tries to play tracks stored onto the watch so¬†click the speaker button to change the audio source, scroll to¬†¬†"play media:¬†from phone" and start a¬†spotify playlist¬†on the phone. The current track and album will show up and you're good to go.

Ok why does everyone keep showing the Smartthings app it doesn't exist. ¬†Which is really sad since Samsung owns Smarthings. ¬†They advertise it on TV all the time is well. ¬† Seems like false advertising to me. ¬†

This article is nothing more than Samsung PR republished. Kevo STILL isn't available on the S2.¬†

The notion that the HERE app is accurate is sort of correct, but it lags so badly that you will often walk right past your turn. I have the S2 3G which could be great, but like all the other Samsung wearables, and I have bought them all except the Live, it promises much but never delivers, then gets replaced with a new model and the lack of apps starts over. Afraid this will be my last Samsung smartwatch.¬†

The best Game for me is mission to mars. The gameplay is perferct for this kind if device : You use only the rotating bezel, you spend approximatly 3-5min to complete the levels (perfect for a break). In the opposite of vroom rider, you can finish the game and it's not too easy!